“Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.” ― Ludwig van Beethoven

Category Archives: Spitfire Audio

Here is the narration that should accompany my video for “Lady of Shadows,” a song from the album “Red Fields of None.” Just imagine the voice of David Tennant, or Kiefer Sutherland, or Patrick Stewart, or whoever your favorite voice person happens to be.

The first instrument we hear is the Bösendorfer piano from Eastwest/Quantum Leap Pianos. From day one, I’ve always loved the sound of this library, and of this piano in particular. This is also my go-to piano for sketching out and brainstorming new ideas. Keep in mind, though, that when it comes to a lot of Eastwest stuff (such as Hollywood Strings, another great library which I also used here), it doesn’t come “mix-ready” out of the box. Their idea is to provide you with the tools you’d get if you were a recording or mixing engineer. So you’ll probably want to spend a little time shaping and crafting your sound.

Next is Hollywood Strings, another library that never disappoints. The legato patches here sound great–I used the bow-change+slur patch, which means that depending on how you play (or MIDI program it), the patch will change between bow-change or slur legato transition (there are other patches that also include portamento transitions). It’s SO rewarding to hear this in action, but a price we have to pay is that there is a little lag when playing. If you want to play it in real time, you have to play a little ahead of the metronome, but one gets used to it with practice. A word of warning: EW recorded some LOUD dynamics on these strings (the library is intended for modern dramatic scores and compositions). At their loudest, these strings are screaming. Be mindful of this, because the strings sound so good that it’s easy to lose track of dynamics and before you know it everything is loud.

ACE from U-He provides the synth pads. This is the same company that makes Zebra, a favorite tool of Hans Zimmer. ACE is a nice modular synth that even emulates the cables for you, and it’s a great learning tool if you want to become familiar with modular synthesizers. Just make sure you read the manual first.

The saxophone is from EWQL’s Goliath library. This library has been around for awhile, but it will never get old. The clarinet is from EWQL’s Hollywood Symphonic Woodwinds.

When the track gets heavy near the end, I bring in some Spitfire Iceni low strings to add some weight to the cellos and basses. Spitfire makes some GREAT stuff, and you’ll be seeing a lot of their libraries in upcoming videos. Iceni is their “low, heavy” library with larger orchestral bass/low sections. The sound is mighty impressive, as you’d imagine.

That about covers it! Feel free to ask any questions on the composition of this piece, or any questions about the libraries that were used.